“The Federal Advisory Committee Act
requires that notices of meetings of advisory committees be announced in the
Federal Register 15 days prior to the meeting date. However, this notice of the
NIAC meeting is being published in the Federal Register on April 8, 2013, zero
days prior to the meeting due to an immediate need by DHS to receive advice on
the new implementation of Executive Order 13636 and Presidential Policy
Directive 21. Both mandate comprehensive consultation with stakeholders in very
short time lines for implementation. Although the meeting notice was published
in the Federal Register late, the date of the meeting has been posted on the Council's
public Web site on www.dhs.gov since January
2013. Additional outreach will be accomplished through trade and professional associations.”

So the meeting has been planned since January, but the DFO
can’t get a notice into the Federal Register until the day of the meeting; that
is really sad or should I say incompetent? I can’t even buy the EO/PPD excuse
since those have been out for over a month. Even if a month were not enough
time for NPPD to realize that NIAC might need a briefing on the topic, the
meeting notice should have already been published and this would be an addition
to the agenda.

Fortunately for NIAC there is no one that enforces this
particular federal law, so they can give notice, or late notice, or probably no
notice at all and nothing would happen. It just does not inspire confidence in
the leadership at NPPD or DHS.

Agenda

The meeting notice
provides the following agenda list for this meeting:

• Briefing and Discussion on
Executive Order 13636 and Presidential Policy Directive 21 by the Department of
Homeland Security

• Identification of Potential Areas
to Recommend for Next NIAC Study

I would guess that the ‘potential area’ for the next NIAC
study will be something to do with EO 13636 even though NIAC was not mentioned
in the EO (the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council was - §6 - though
but we all know that there is no room for petty institutional jealousy in the
federal government).

Public comments are being solicited, kind of. There will be
time after the Working Group presentation for oral comments from the public,
but the notice
states: “We request that comments be limited to the issues listed in the
meeting agenda and previous NIAC studies.” Written comments may
be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # DHS-2013-0004),
but they must be submitted by noon on Monday.

OOPS, there is no such docket number on www.Regulations.gov as of 7:00 am CDT,
4-6-13; maybe they don’t really want your comments after all. Maybe you should
try email ( NIAC@hq.dhs.gov) or
fax {(703) 603-5098} and there is even a snail mail address
given (yep, that will get there by noon on Monday).

About Me

Patrick Coyle is a freelance writer dealing with chemical security and safety issues. He has 15 years experience in the US Army with extensive experience in training development, delivery and evaluation. He spent 20 years working in the chemical process industry developing and improving chemical manufacturing processes with a large emphasis on chemical and process safety. He currently writes a daily blog, the Chemical Facility Security News, examining the issues associated with the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards administered by the Department of Homeland Security.